The Perfectionists

Chapter 23

THE NEXT DAY, JANE AND Evie huddled below Evie's car window in the Beacon Heights parking lot. It was after school, and an unusually hot sun was beating down on them through the moonroof. Jane was impressed by Evie's spotless car—there wasn't a gum wrapper or empty soda can anywhere, just a spare hoodie on the backseat. And though they were surrounded by Mercedes, BMWs, and Audis bought by parents who had more money than they knew what to do with, Evie's car was an old, manual-transmission Subaru.

"What do your parents do, anyway?" Jane asked idly. She just realized she didn't know very much about Evie's home life. The other girls moaned about their situations—Audrey complained about her father and stepmother, Uma muttered about her good-cop, bad-cop mom, and she certainly did her fair share of grousing about her überstrict mom.

Evie looked away. "Um, my dad isn't really around. And my mom . . ." Then she stiffened. "Get down. There he is."

Jane ducked just as Jay walked out one of the doors under the breezeway and toward the gym, his duffel bag hanging from one hand. In moments, he disappeared through the gym's double doors.

Evie looked at her. "I guess he's working out?"

"Looks like it," Jane said. Auradon Preps workout facilities were top-notch; a lot of teachers used them, too. "Should we go in?" Evie murmured.

Jane shrugged. They'd been following Jay for an hour and a half. The others had taken shifts yesterday and today, all in the hopes that something he did would lead them to the truth about what had happened to Ben. But so far, their stakeouts had been a bust. Yesterday, they'd followed him to the grocery store, the public library, and to a sports bar packed with knights fans . . . and he hadn't done so much as hit on the bartender. Today, they'd tailed him from the school to Starbucks and now back to the gym.

Jane leaned her head back in the seat and sighed. "He's the most boring murderer in history."

Evie shook her head. "Sooner or later he'll slip up. We just have to be there when it happens."

Jane twisted her lips to one side skeptically. She wanted to believe Evie, but she wasn't so sure. Jay seemed to be going about his business without a care in the world. He didn't do anything suspicious. "I just wish Audrey's boyfriend had a record of the girls coming in and out of his place," she muttered. Audrey had filled them in on her boyfriend's revelation yesterday about Jay's extracurricular affairs.

"Even so, that might not tie him to Ben," Evie said. Then she looked at Jane. "You can go, you know. You probably have to practice, right? No point in screwing up both of our futures."

Jane shut her eyes. Of course she had to practice, but practicing was far from the forefront of her mind. Her phone rang softly from the depths of her backpack. She rummaged for it, and when she saw the name on the screen, her heart sped up. Carlos.

They hadn't seen each other for a week. Actually, Jane hadn't really seen Lonnie for a couple of days, either—they hadn't talked over the weekend, and she wasn't in school yesterday or today. Jane had considered texting her to see if she was sick and needed her assignments—that was what they'd done in the past—but somehow she hadn't been able to bring herself to do it. All she could think about was how Lonnie had lied to her that day at Disneyland.

The phone kept ringing. Jane knew she shouldn't take Carlos's call, but she felt her fingers reaching for the answer button on the screen anyway.

"Hey, Jane." Carlos's soft voice through the receiver. "What're you doing?"

"Uh, nothing," she lied, glancing guiltily at Evie. "What's up?"

"Come meet me at the ferry," he said.
"What, in the city?" She snorted. "I can't do that."